Cheat Meals

One single meal can’t make you fat, but if you’re having regular cheat meals, then there’s every likelihood you’re shooting yourself in the foot unknowingly & leaving your progress to chance.

Losing fat (or building muscle) all comes down to calorie balance over a period of time. You won’t change that much in a day, but you can change a lot in several weeks & months.

Most think they can get away with a massive cheat-meal/binge, & stuffing their face with as much food as they possibly can, provided they’re on track 6/7 days, but this will only work by accident.

It is entirely possible to eat back not only the calories you worked so hard to burn off during the week, but enough to take you from a deficit & send you into a surplus for the week, meaning not only will you not lose weight, but even gain some.

A 500 calorie per day deficit to lose weight puts you at a deficit of 3000 calories after 6 days. Going 3,000 over on the 7th day completely wipes out the 3000 you were under maintenance over the course of the other 6 days, which gives you a grand total of zero weight loss.

Some people might be more restrained on a cheat day & only have 3500 calories, but still, that takes your weekly deficit from 3000 down to 2000, which almost halves your rate of loss.

Next time you have a cheat meal though, think to yourself - am I ok with the fact I'm leaving my progress up to chance by eating a meal without tracking it? Better approach? Refeed/ controlled/ tracked higher calorie days.

Calories are the most important thing when it comes to manipulating your weight, so if you’re going to eat these sorts of foods, it’s important to do so in a manner that isn’t going to influence that calorie equation in a negative fashion.

After all, the more you're able to enjoy your diet, the longer you're able to stick to it, which means more long term progress.

Next, I'm going to tell you why your glorious cheat meals are probably the reason you aren't making any progress at all.

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